Tag: Terminator Genisys

The final part of a Terminator retrospective that mixes its twisting timeline with some of the horror roots behind each instalment. Jokerside’s looked back at 1964 to 2004, but now the twist gets harder, from The Sarah Connor Chronicles to Terminator Genisys. Spoilers abound…

THE CHANCES OF THE TERMINATOR FRANCHISE REGAINING THE CRITICAL APPRECIATION OF ITS EARLY DAYS ARE AS REMOTE AS SKYNET AGREEING A TRUCE WITH HUMANITY’S LAST UNDERGROUND CITY OF ZION. Still, The Terminator remains intriguing; relatively distinct from and self-assured compared to young pretenders like The Matrix. After years in the ether, the Terminator film rights are due to revert to T-Master James Cameron in 2019. But amid terrible marketing, reviews and release, the latest attempt to reboot, a film superior to its immediate two predecessors in many ways, has somehow managed to gross over $400 million at the international box office. Impressive work, showing that there’s still fuel left in the endoskeleton. Arnie wasn’t lying about T-800s lasting 120 years.

Where we are: Sarah and John Connor emerge on a freeway in San Francisco, swapping 1999 for 2008 with their guardian Terminator Cameron (not as beardy as the franchise creator who gifted her name). Judgement Day has been deferred, but as much as the Connors have bought some time with their disappearance, resistance and Skynet forces are growing in a past increasingly forming a temporal civil war. Sarah and John set about stopping the armageddon once and for all, leaping twists and turns as they go.

“Come with me if you want to live”: Several times, courtesy of the delightful and mysterious new Terminator model – the T-900 series Cameron.

Splitting the timeline, and deliberately ignoring the events of Terminator 3 (the clue’s in the title), the two short seasons of The Sarah Connor Chronicles may be Terminator’s finest hour(s).

“Great, it looks like a robot serial killer lives here”

Where to start. Praising The Sarah Connor Chronicles could take volumes, and perhaps it will take over Jokerside one day… But let’s get it over with succinctly here. For all the trauma of the material, fan expectation and behind the scenes machination, possibly no other series has carved an original and captivating narrative from a simple pitch, while retaining the essence and maintaining the sanctity of two seminal blockbuster films. No, not even Timecop. But, there are inherent problems with taking that one line pitch from the first film and fixing it to an ongoing narrative.

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Another franchise all about futility? This is becoming a habit. Part one of a look at the horror of Terminators 1, 2 and 3…

Terminator Genisys has just emerged the shadow of flop and thanks to some phenomenal Chinese takings has somehow surpassed Mad Max Fury Road at the international box office. This return of the Terminator brings ever more twisted timelines with the biggest reboot in the temporally tangled saga. But that’s only to be expected in a franchise that’s had that moveable timelines built in from the first instalment…

It’s not just a shame to miss out on some of that ‘time fun’, it would be like watching Salvation again. But while doing that, why delve into the more interesting idea that every Terminator film draws on a different type of horror? From slasher to gothic to psychological – behold the horror within!

AS ITS MOST FAMOUS CATCHPHRASE SUGGESTS, TERMINATOR IS THE KING OF THE COMEBACK – THE PREMIUM GOLD FRANCHISE THAT SITS JUST THE WRONG SIZE OF BUDGET TO STOP IT BEING USED AS COLLATERAL ACROSS TINSEL TOWN. And there are many studios, let alone filmmakers, lined up to have a stab. It’s helped that the rights have pinged around as much as Hunter Killers, and this year Genisys is the latest example of that wringing of the franchise. Moving away from the last attempt, 2009’s Salvation, it chucks the proverbial time travelling sink at Skynet. As its stuttering box office has suggested, there’s a lot of time streams running under the bridge…

Twisting Timelines

“I can’t help you with what you must soon face, expect to say that the future is not set”

Terminator. That dark, gritty, violent slice of horror science-fiction… That spawned an empire. Having jumped at the peak, creator James Cameron, has sat outside the franchise, but still atop Hollywood box office. He’s not alone. While the legend persists that the main franchises needs Arnold Schwarzenegger to survive, even he hasn’t spanned the entire universe. Over 30 years, five films a TV series and multiple prose, comic, gaming and theme park spin-offs the franchise has left an indelible footprint on western cinema. And as Genisys proves, it’s far from dead. And not has it risen again, but Genisys is resolutely closer to the original film than any of the others. In fact, it’s taken 31 years for the franchise to dare to touch the sacred timeline set down by that first classic.

There’s one common link throughout the saga. While almost every film distorts the timeline in some way, the famed Judgment Day remains inevitable. As much as the Connors flip between survival and actively trying to stop Skynet in its tracks, it remains a certainty no matter how much it is pushed back in time or mechanism. The result is an ever-expanding temporal war spilling out from a few points in the future that continue to spin further backwards and sideways in time. It’s built on paradox, but there’s something else in there as well…

Hedging Horror

For all the dodging of an 18 certificate in the UK, Terminator at least started off in a gruesomely mature film. Back then the time jumping wasn’t too complicated and the plot a slash ‘em up – but more of that later… As the Terminator saga has grown it’s hung on to its horror roots in ways that are far more interesting than extrapolating the parallel timelines alone. In this summer of dystopia, it’s possibly the big budget Hollywood franchise that preaches futility in the face of certain destiny the most. So taking that horrific journey through time, exploring key horror at the key dates, where exactly are we?

1964

19 September and 17 October, two episodes of the Outer Limits titled Soldier and The Demon with The Glass Hand are broadcast, both written by Harlan Ellison. See 1984…

1965

Sarah Connor is born. The fatal cat and mouse pursuit can begin, somehow dodging her forefathers.